Christmas is under five weeks away: Sam Wood's strategies for avoiding silly season weight gain

It’s not the Christmas Day eat-a-thon that adds to your waistline — it’s the food and booze-heavy parties in the weeks leading up to the day that are more likely to do you in.

“The problem is we stretch it out for so long,” believes Sam Wood, former Bachelor and the fitness coach behind the online program 28 by Sam Wood.

“We wipe out December and January, which ends up being a very big chunk of the year. And then come February or even March, we think ‘Uh oh, I’ve done it again — I’ve left myself a lot of work to do’.”

A better strategy is avoiding putting on weight in the lead-up to Christmas by sticking to a balanced diet and maintaining your exercise schedule.

Wood suggests that you say to yourself, “I’m going to limit the alcohol and be a little bit sensible, I’m going to make sure I limit my portion sizes”, and find the best time of the day to keep fit.

“Mornings can be your best friends,” he told the hosts of Today Extra. “All those [Christmas] social events tend to happen later in the day so if you can get something active done early, that will even out as the day goes on.”

In the clip above, Wood explains the exercises that give you the most “bang for your buck” when it comes to keeping off Christmas kilos.